An Account of the Four Lands of Sarasaland
by BirdsHorsesAndOtherProblems
Summary: May this account bring into remembrance of our Sarasalandisch customs and history.
1. Introduction to the Account

Hail to you, Princess Daisy of the Four Lands of Sarasaland! Heaven has chosen your forefathers of the illustrious House of Gänseblümchen to rule our Lands with justice! I shall thank you for your interest, and dearest request, for my work. It has been a little break from all that sports practices, and that royal conduct-training-sessions, and all those royal speeches and meetings, is it not?

I am Piang, the Commissioned Surveyor of the Four Lands. I am a Pionpi, by birth, and my ancestral land is Chai, the Royal Capital-Land of Sarasaland. I will tell you more about all this later.

My treatise of the Four Lands has been wrought forth from my humble mind, desiring to preserve the memory and traditions of the inhabitants of the Four Lands, however strange we are. As I looked in the Royal Library through all the records of our Four Lands, most of them are from the Gänseblümchenisch people, Our Implanted Rulers. Any of _our_ native (_mostly_, sadly, of Chaian origin) accounts are usually 'broken': incomplete either by damage by unknown, mischievous assailants* ; or by choice - mentioning only of Chai, or having a fragment of our history, not being entire, 'legendary-or-not'. Much of them seems interlaced with mere legends and fairytales, while the earliest origin myths survive among the classic I had just previously read** .

I continued through my project in the course of seven years, three months, two days (minus festival days and _days-of-illness-or-critical-need_). Wandering across the land, beaten by the blazing sun and the dry winds; scorned, harassed, and mocked by countrymen of all sorts*** ; I nonetheless collected information from many accounts and mouths throughout the Four Lands. (_Thank Heaven that I survived, with my documents, intact_)

Thank you, Your Majesty Volltoenendus Gaenselbluemchen, for your request for my project. And I shall thank the peoples of the Four Lands for helping me in protecting and preserving **their** history; I do it for the sake of all of Sarasaland. Finally, I shall thank Heaven for the Providence that was Bestowed upon you, Your Majesty, your House, and all the inhabitants of the Four Lands.

Oh, and I shall thank you too, again, for refusing to allow me to do the ancient customary _Knockings_; I have to appreciate your righteous beliefs and your scientific progress!

* * *

_Appendix: Translation and Notes are by Doctor Venanzio Voltavenuio of Toad Town, Regio Primus, Mushroom Kingdom.__* They may be rival scholars and historians, however proud of their history and culture, who may have caused this damage. Being a hired palace official, especially as one who deals with documents (in Chai) may be a **very** notorious thing; you might risk having your work scorned, or biased by/in future works. You might even get murdered, if your rank gets higher._

** _The Royal Library of Chai, of Chai, was burnt in a fire, deliberately started by either the irresponsible last King Shun-Cho of Chai, his bickering scholars, or the advancing Gaenselbluemchenisch troops, during the Conquest of Sarasaland. It may have been both, on separate-but-coincidental incidents. Those you can find in the Daisy Castle may have been stored (and damaged/worn off) away in the damp Royal Library. It looks a bit like a prison cell, or a huge dungeon, judging by my last visit._

*** _As stated earlier, the Chaians are_ **_arrogantly _**_proud of their long [but lost] history. Much of whatever that is known, by the time of Royal Commissioner Piang's writing, was filled with unbelievably wonderful legends. They had (formerly) reviled Piang for 'falsifying' their 'true' [sic] history._

_(I am now attending to my daughter, who is now under dysentery. I will be back in five days.)_

**ESTO VIGILANS!**


	2. Chapter 1: Chai

Chai is the eastern quarter of all of Sarasaland. It is a temperate region, walled within three sides by mountains to keep out invaders.

The capital of Chai is "Chai", as it was known ever since from ancient times.

Much of Chai is forested, hilly, and mountainous; or it can be farmland for the rest of the rural lands. Many rivers and lakes also exist in Chai, where its fertility was bestowed from.

There are numerous villages, and several towns in Chai, and tea-houses and rest-houses punctuating the highways and lesser dirt roads that worm across the land. Very rarely can you expect a city as great as the City of Diamonds.

Numerous creatures, harmless and horrid, lurk and wander throughout the forests and skies of Chai. Deer, wild fowl, pheasants, small birds, owls, foxes, boars, wolves, tigers, eagles, snakes, beetles, _and so forth._ But beware the serpentine Nyololins, who breathe a terrible fire when attacked; and the Pakkun Flowers, who shoot out poisonous spores wherever they go.

As for history, we could all re-collect from the legends of my local people:

"Once upon a time, the Pionpis were the first people to be born in the land. They cannot walk, but they hop. They were always _born_ to be like that. [Or possibly a terrible curse from the gods.] Never-the-less, they managed to endure the elements and beasts of the land, and created tribal chiefdoms of their own."

"One ancient Pionpi, who lived five thousand years before our time [_King Shun-Chia's era_], united the warring tribes. He received a divine mission that requires them to conquer what is now "Sarasaland" if they rule all of it, in its entirety. Thus began the many dynasties of our Land of Chai, the Chosen-of-the-Divine, the Cradle of Real and True Culture."

_Your Highness, how I hate_ _biases._ That can be why Chai may seem "backwards", compared to the Mudans. _Or at least, our ethics may be higher than theirs ... _


	3. Chapter 1a: The Pionpis

Here I shall introduce about my race, the Pionpis.

The Pionpis (_**Pio-n-pí**, from the words "**pi-o-n**", which means "**hop**", and "**p**______**í**", which means "**people**"._) are like humans, but with blue or gray skin, and an inability for their legs to do anything else other than hop. They can suffer burns more serious than that which humans can suffer. I would like to quote Minister Dao-Tshai (_of the lunar calendar now known as Erde-Jahr, or EJ, 3223, of the Era of the Flowers and Javelins_) : "_Fire, the great paradox of life and death: it protects us from beasts and cold, dark illnesses, yet it kills the foolish as it_ _chooses!_"

However, their advantage is that no matter how many cuts their bodies are split into, they reassemble, as if by divine effort. This can be why they can tend to be war-like in ancient times, as they consider it "_a __blessed relief into the afterlife_" *. However, they can also be destroyed, without cure or re-assemble, by falling from a (_very_) high distance or by being crushed by a very heavy object into a bloody mess. _This was the less-or-more common method of execution in ancient times._ It is _also_ possible to kill a Pionpi by subjecting him or her to any incurable poison or disease (_some of which may not affect a human as deadly as it does on a Pionpi's body_).

Pionpis live longer lives than humans: the oldest Pionpi was about 200 years' old. Despite this, they were born, and they grow up, at the same rate as that of an ordinary human. Yet, even old age is another way to kill a Pionpi; once the elderly Pionpi enters into "_a sleep from which he _[or she] _cannot awaken, his _[or her] _body cannot reassemble, ever again._"

Their clothing is usually silken, with some vivid colors (especially for the higher classes, for everyone who is not a government official). The middle classes (I am one of such) wear dark blue robes, as dictated by a tradition to reflect "upper standards". The lower classes, mostly due to the lack of wealth or mountainside/hillside farmers'/grazers' status, usually wear dull, un-dyed woolen garments and robes.

Traditional clothes are long-sleeved, dark blue robes, split on the sides at the feet's level, lined with yellow (or gold for royals) at the bottom, and lined with darker blue at the dual sleeves. Headgear includes "bowl-shaped", dark blue hats studded with one dark red or crimson, round-cut stone, and topped with a wooden or stone ball (it can be gold or precious gems for nobles and top officials, and the King has a diamond, a pearl, or an emerald on his crown.) .

All men in Chai are required (unless they are foreigners) to keep their black hair into a long queue "in the opposite of the eyes" *ii , and to shave the rest. Any Pionpi who keeps his hair long is considered as a savage who must never be attended to, and those who intentionally *iii cut their queue will be **_beheaded and burnt_** on the charge of rebellion against the King and the Heavens.

The people themselves are very hardworking and literate. Even the poorest peasant at least knows a fraction of the _Ancient Chaian Classics._

Yet, their weaknesses tend to be: backwards-ness, fear, docility, and a hatred of innovation!

Before the rule of the _Gaesenbluemchenen_, the ancient and antique authority of Chai is the King (or otherwise known as the "_Kaiser_"), who sits on his Jade Throne-of-Marvelousness-and-Brilliance, and his officials and his complex bureaucracy. Yet, throughout its continuous five-and-a-half millennia of history, most of the Kings of Chai were fools who cared for either pleasure, power, or strict obedience to Heaven ("_So strict, even the Heavens are _repulsed_ by such_ _extremity._") .

The religion of Chai is something I dare not, or never, to discuss about, but it is mainly polytheistic, under the rule of Heaven.

The Pionpi's language is called "_Pion-p__í_ _Wen_". Contrary to popular belief, many of their words are also multisyllabic, with special marks or letters to designate and distinguish long vowels from shorter vowels *iiii . And _Pionp____í Wen_ is not written entirely by symbols for each word or idea, but mainly (and mostly) with separate symbols for individual syllables and final consonants.

Much of their culture was based on their long, military history: from wooden sword play-fights in childhood to operas about generals and troops, expect them to be excellent in military-related things.

**(I KNOW THAT THE CONTINUED ACCOUNTS OF THE CUSTOMS OF THE PIONPIS MAY BE DULL AND UNINTERESTING TO THE "CASUAL READER", SO I SHALL INTRODUCE TO YOU, "THE CONTINUED, DE-MYTHOLOGISED, AND COLLECTED, HISTORY OF THE PIONPIS".)**

... After the Unification of the Fragments, and the murder of the beloved First King _Shun-Chia_ by the sly Second King _Shun-Dao-Tien_ on EJ 301, when the remaining tribes were united under him, he supposedly received an "order from the Heavens" that requires this: "_In order for the Ailment of Hopping to be cured and removed from your people, King Shun-Dao-Tien of Shun-Kwok, **you must unify the entire land, even down to the islets and seas, so that all people may serve under the Heavens, and NOT you.**_

And so, he prepared his entire nation, and people, into war for 710 years (through his appointed successors and their sons), arming, training, and slashing and piercing and shooting. However, King Shun-Dao-Tien was warned to "_beware that your culture and refinement must not be lost in decadence, devotion, or aggression, lest the people become barbarians or savages again._"

Despite this, in the year EJ 456, the just King Shun-Diao-Tsai was overthrown (and violently burned) by one of his disgruntled generals, Liou-Wiang-Zia. His madness brought Great Liou into ruin, worsened by the Greatest Famine ever experienced by the Pionpi race and others in Chai. **Thirteen years later, his great-grandson, Liou-Hiou-Za, was driven out by the even worse Zei-Ba T'un, who forced Great (_or Little_) Zei-Ba Kwok to become a thousand times more militaristic, abandoning the Heavenly Command to protect "refinement".**

For 607 years-and-a-half, three-quarters of all Pionpis were required to join the Army of Great-and-Immense-Strength. Any who disobeyed, King or peasant alike, will be taken to the stakes to be burnt to ashes. **Myriads of thousands of thousands of innocent and righteous dissidents were unjustly rounded up, and burned, their screams and smoke polluting the skies of** _ancient Sarasaland_. Within this dark, uncultured era, the much-murdered-and-absent and vile Zei-Ba rulers were overthrown, and driven out of Hiong-Kwok, by the just Hiong-Wia-Rang, who made life less harsher (_but more corrupt_) after he ascended to the Throne. This was on year 876. But on 901, the bandit Zei-Ba Ya gathered some frightened villagers, and used them mercilessly to destroy, and wipe out, whatever traces of the _Hiong_ and the _Shun_ families, and put _himself_ on the Jaded Throne. There, he put the "near-completed" armies of Zei-Ba Kwok back to work: scaring all Pionpis and resident foreigners into obedience to the throne.

In the year EJ 1011, his grandson, Zei-Ba Yong, thought that his nation was ready for total war against the other nations of Sarasaland, so he crossed the many mountain passes in the northwest into the barren plateaus and valleys of Easton ("_Í-su-t'án Kwok_"). He and his millions of troops thought that all the other peoples were Pionpis like them, but they instead encountered "_immortal_" [_sic_] beings of rock and stone, whose bodies cannot be destroyed by blade, flint, or wood. No matter that many thousands were crushed by thrown or _released-by-nature-or-trap_ boulders; this war was fought for 65 years, before Eastonian spies found our fiery weakness, and either: wasted much of their forests to shoot us with burning arrows and javelins; or drowned us in canals and streams of lava-and-magma. So the remaining hundreds of Pionpi were chased down by warriors throwing burning, lava-doused sticks and spears, and the elderly King Zei-Ba Yong and his troops were hastily shot by the royal guard as they were sighted returning to the capital. It was Duke Ba of Chei-Wiang-He who was on the Jaded Throne, and after that, he was burned by Nyololins on a night-time hunting trip. **In his absence, and while he was plotting, scheming, and fighting his way to the Jaded Throne, other warlords lied in wait, and pounced, starting the Age of the Claimants of Heaven. Meanwhile, the "wicked" (or so they say) Zei-Ba line was "wiped off from the face of the Earth".**

These "Claimants" and their chaos burned and divided the Land for 259 years, before the last of them destroyed each other. **After that, on the year 1402, a peasant, called "_Chai_ _Wiang De_", led his thousands of followers to claim the devastated, and deserted, capital city of Liang, and took the Kingly Seal of Heaven and the Royal Treasures to his easterly, river-side village of Chai, where a new Royal City was constructed in anticipation to his coming. He established the long-celebrated line of the _Chai__ Dynasty_, the dynasty from which the now-healed land was named "Chai" for ever.**

He then launched an invasion through the dry mountain passes into Birabuto ("_Pi-rá-bu-tó_"). Amid the dusty heat of the sands, the troops rejoiced that they have finally found beastly enemies of flesh and bone, and not of "_unbreakable __substances_", and conquered the land for 162 years. Just as King Chai De-Hoau was about to conquer a new and mysterious "_land of metallic beings and monsters and sea creatures_", some Birabutian rebels found our secret of "_defeat-by-fire_", and readily burned our camps and garrisons for 4 years before successfully driving us out. Unlike his Zei-Ba predecessor of centuries ago, he was welcomed back with much joy, greeted by red flower petals thrown at the street, and ointments and spices. **But like his Ba/Chei predecessor, he was burned by wild Nyololins at night, but in his palace after 8 years rather than in a hunt.** Nevertheless, in 1602, King Chai De-Hsiao launched a cultural campaign that was almost faithfully-kept for 802 years that was later known as the blessed "_Jaded Age_". It enhanced Chai and Pionpi civilization, and caused hundreds of Pionpis to risk their lives to explore not only the _Continent of Sarasaland_, but the entire _World_ (_however incomplete it may be_). This Age is from which much of the earlier parts of the _Ancient Chaian Classics_ (used as a school-book from that _Era_ onward) were composed and gathered over centuries. This was also the Age when sea transport (other than fishing) was used more often than in any other pre-Conquest Age. **However, in 1703, King Chai De-Hsi was overthrown by Biong Wi-Sai-Eh, who still made it even more splendid ... ... and corrupt "over the centuries".**

In 2004, the metallic Mudans ("_Myú-da/ta Kwok_") invaded our land, and tyrannized us for 10 years, forcing ourselves to "upgrade" into robotic bodies. The resistance movement that grew out of the "_Unaffected_" created artificial floods and turned the marauders' technology against them, sweeping them back "_past the High Mountains_". Nevertheless, in 2067, the Birabutians invaded our impoverished nation, but failed. **Repeated invasions were repelled until the coming of the Eastonians, who enslaved us and burned us for 124 harrowing years, before the Mudans invaded us again****.**

The rest of this was of more invasions, and threats to exterminate our nation, until we adopted (_stole_) the Mudans' technology to repel all three nations out of Chai. **More dynastic changes ensued until a Gold Age ensued, with the last of the stolen Mudan technology, to advance our nation, until the year 3223, when the _Era/War of the Flowers and Javelins_ began.**

This was another civil war in our nation, between the Culturalists and the Grand-Warriors, who tore our country up _as though it were a garment of red silk_. **The Culturalists wanted the Land of Chai to emphasize more on the "_culture it was not to lose until the end of the world_"; while the Grand-Warriors insisted on renewed assaults ("_retaliations are_ _necessary_") against the other Kingdoms and Lands of _Sarasaland_, considering it the Pionpi's divine agenda.**

**_This_, my friend and reader, is from which the surviving later _Ancient Chaian Classics_, from its wailing rhetoric (which resulted in deadly brawls and cutthroat schemes) to its destructive (_and ironically creative_) debates came from.**

This "_cold_" war lasted for 1,256 years, the longest in Chaian and Pionpi history. Nevertheless, the combatants were careful enough to avoid devastating the Land like the Claimants and the Zei-Ba of old did. The Land "_wailed with poetry, on every village, city, and social class._" **But on 4479, the _War/Era/Age_ ended when both sides finally agreed to attack, and conquer, the other Three Lands.**

On 4483, thirteen armies split northwest and southwest to attack Easton and Birabuto, respectively. They "_considered_" (_?_) the mistakes of the earlier armies, developing fire-proof, metallic armor to protect themselves. The Northwestern Eight were armed with steel cauldrons of boiling acid to melt the stone-hard Eastonians, and catapults and stone-throwers to grind the enemy into pieces; while the Southwestern Five had conventional weapons, and more effective strategies. **The latter won, and conquered Birabuto for 60 years (_before being driven out horribly_), while the former were defeated and destroyed, despite bringing _more_ destruction to the enemy's armies through their cumbersome technology.**

In anticipation to an Eastonian counter-attack (on years 4484-4489), the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Chai were ordered by a royal command to arm every urban and rural settlement in the Northern Plains with acid-doused projectiles and traps, stone-throwing machines (_some even used the last Mudan technology to vaporize the Flying Statue Heads!_), and cages filled with enraged Nyololins and Pompon Flowers to distract the land armies. **All of this was a pyrrhic victory; some Eastonian troops escaped the devastation of their comrades with letters ordering the payment of tribute to _Lord Hakuni-motara the Furious_, threatening "_a rain of boulders, upon your insistent arrogance._"** King _Liong-Chan-Ho_ refused, and ordered metallic siege-machines with acid-doused stones and rocks to be stationed on the walls of the Royal City of Chai. He also ordered all surviving civilians to be evacuated southwards, under pain of "_being left behind to be crushed by rocks from the enemy_" *v . This was the first time _rocket-and-coal-powered aircraft_ was used: armed with acid rocks, they destroyed the _Flying Statue Heads_, and some even crashed towards the statues to destroy them! **Still, the last of the invading Eastonians were destroyed by land forces on the Northern Fields, before more reinforcements returned to Chai in a surprise invasion on the years** **4493-4499.**

Then, the last Eastonians retreated, upon news that _Lord Hakuni-motara_ was chiseled to death by _Pukopon_ (4498). We then had more time to arm our nation; no longer shall our Ryang Kings fool around like their predecessors, nor shall be push ourselves into weird devotions into the Chaian state religion. **Five _Wars_ were fought first: the first (5021-5022) towards Birabuto; the second (5032-5041) against Easton; the third (5061-5068) _in defense_ against the Two Countries; the fourth (5234-5344/5348) a _more_ successful conquest of Easton and Birabuto (we conquered their capitals, and captured their royalty, _in that order!_); and a successful sabotage against the "_Mudan State-Engine_", _forcing Muda into such a mediocre condition, that it will never recover into its monstrous greatness_; and a fifth (5448-5469) against hundreds of rag-tag Resistance forces who pushed us back into Chai, and formed a military alliance to prevent us from ever leaving Chai to invade them again.**

These Five Wars plunged Chai from wonderful technological greatness back into archaic backwardsness and poverty, until almost everything public in Chai (including, _especially_, virtually all civilians of every class and level) was owned jointly by the military and the Royalty, again by royal decree. **As if a _Great Blockade-and-Stalemate_ was not enough, on the year 5550, strange wooden ships with great white sails came from the Eastern Ocean, and brought along with them pale-skinned men wearing steel armor, and bearing "_unusual_" [_sic_] firearms, they claimed to "_come in peace_". The last King of Chai, _Shun-Cho__ the Decadent-and-Angry_, shot their diplomats with burning arrows. Thus began the Conquest of Sarasaland, when the _early Gaensenbluemchenen_ conquerors watch in annoyance when the now-foolish _House of Shun_, and their stupid officials, burned the Royal Palace of Chai, and its Library, in reaction to the Royal City's surrender, and that of the rest of the land. [_That was, "surprisingly and horrifyingly", unexpected, as the powerful foreign technology was so strong, they can appear to destroy the aging monstrosities we Chaian Pionpis have made over the centuries and millenia in a matter of days!_]**

While the Foreigners were conquering the other Lands, using local technology as if there was no "_Sacred Ban_" on such a dirty tactic (or so the Chaians said), they nevertheless administered our lands and people better than the old royals did. **Like the _Chais_ and the _Biongs_ of old, they emphasize on technology and science; but they also had taught us something we Chaians and Pionpis rarely use in our daily lives: _mercy-and-compassion_, what we usually pray to the Heavens for when we do something wrong, but what we do not always do in our everyday lives.**

For all of our warlike millenia of ancient times, we gradually were taught (_and forced_) to become a peaceful people. They set up their new Capital on the burnt ruins of the old, wooden Royal Palace, and collected every treasure to be researched about. We were even allowed to take part in their government, and were even taught the strange art of "_democracy_". **Even the "_honorable_" custom of _Slavery_ must be abandoned, by the new laws of the Conquerors.**

They even brought along their "advanced" (_in a commoner's reach_) technology, as if we are becoming like civilians, and no longer a proud race of warriors and conquerors. **Still, there were secret societies who sought to "_drive the blasted Gaensenbluemchenen/Gan-sem-po-lüm-k'e-nen back into the Eastern Ocean from which they were spawned,_" who sparked eighteen failed revolts, by the time of this book's writing.**

**Now, at this age, it is _Erde-Jahr_ 5690.**

[_My personal wish to your Royal House, Princess Daisy, is that if you are not pleased with this book, please share it to a friend, and let him, her, or the Royal Family be very careful **never** to repeat the Chai Kings' deadly and foul mistakes ever again. Then will_ the Heavens_ consider that you are fit to rule this Land, and this entire Continent.  
__  
__If this has offended you, I am very sorry; I am doing what I can to reveal and compose the **real** history of Chai, and of Sarasaland in general. I am very sorry._] 

* * *

_* One of the greatest fears of a Pionpi is not fire, but immortality; he or she does not want to see his or her land plunged into scarcity of resources and a terrible abundance of hungry mouths. This is, to him or her, the "sin of overpopulation", which leads to other unimaginable horrors to his or her mind, of abuses and savageries waiting and prowling upon the starving populace. _**You**_ guess what they are._

*ii_ On the back of the head._

*iii_ However, if a Pionpi does it by accident, he must pay a fine of 45 catties, or be locked up in the town dungeon for eight lunar months._

*iiii_ And more special symbols to represent foreign sounds, such as _"**ü**" _and aspirated consonants._

*v_ Some villagers' folk songs lament and howl that Royal Chaian Forces deliberately launched stones and rocks at 'their ancestors and their ancestors' relatives', for not doing the elaborate rituals to 'welcome the King and his officers'._


	4. Chapter 2: Birabuto

The King then sent soldiers, a donkey, and supplies for my journey through and in Birabuto.

I then walked the same dry mountain pass one of the _Southwestern Five _had marched through on _4483_. Now two red towers flank the pass.

As I showed them the King's Commission Seal, they let me and my party pass. They also required that I (and the rest of my team) are to wear white clothes when entering _Birabuto_, as "_white clothes reduce the heat of the Sun by absorbing it_". Another legacy of the Conquerors' rule was demonstrated here: science being told in the guise of folk proverbs and phrases.

The air gets hotter and drier. The land gets drier and dustier. This was so, even as we were passing alongside a cool, clear river, following a path into the capital city of Birabuto, _Niwotah-Sassanah_.

After five days, we have finally reached the city gates. Lofty as they are, they present a grand feast to the foreigner's eyes: an unimaginable, magnificent metropolis of beautiful sandstone structures.

This, as explained by a city guard, is the biggest city in all of Sarasaland.

**Here, I shall explain the land of Birabuto itself. **

The land of Birabuto is at the south part of the Continent of Sarasaland, and is mostly dry, hot desert. Nonetheless, mighty rivers from the Central Mountains at the north water this otherwise-desolate land. Birabuto is not all "desert, rivers, and soily river valleys", though; on the hilly north, rainwater from Muda and Chai (and sometimes Easton on the north) flows into more smaller rivers that either create scrubland plains (and occasionally acacia and palm forests), or become tributaries to the mighty rivers nearby; and on the southern coast, some parts outside the Rivers do have patches of grass, trees, and other flora.

Much of its farmland is obviously alongside the _**Great Rivers****; **_but some farmland, especially up north, is dedicated to sheep, goats, and cattle. The River-side farmland is mostly for growing corn, wheat, barley, and vegetables, although there are some fish the natives either catch with nets or spear with wood, even in the cities.

There are coyotes and jackals who prey on the hares, wild camels, wild goats, and the smaller foxes of the desert; wild raptors, lions (not to be confused the ruling _Gaos_, who are more intelligent than they), bears, and wolves prey on sheep and livestock (and the unfortunate traveller) on the north; and hippopotami, crocodiles, and alligators lurk on the rivers itself, disturbing some storks and other waterfowl. Other than all these, fish, livestock, and birds, there exist many a great deal of animals and fauna; various insects (including delicious locusts and grasshoppers), snakes that slither on the sands and grass alike, toads on the riverbanks (and oases), rats and hyenas.

In Birabuto, there are thousands more settlements than there are in all of Chai. Most of them radiate from major cities and capitals alongside the Great Rivers (at the southern banks, and near the coast), and some cluster in the northern hills like mountain fires at night. As for the roads, most of the dirt roads that weave across the country are found south, while the least-populated North has some highways of dirt. Cobblestone paths and pavement are more likely around and in the Capitals, and as "trade routes" into Muda (-_shudder_-) and Chai. One trade route even blasted a tunnel northwards into Easton. Still more are about to be detonated at the mountainsides as tunnels, by the time of this book's writing.

As for history, here is a little summary of all that happened up to now;

"_Once upon a time, they united, advanced, and held out to the end._"

**Now I shall explain the customs and characteristics of the Birabuteans.**

The majority of all Birabuteans are Gaos, strong feline beings who are all born with the ability to breathe fire.

The Birabuteans are good at mathematics and engineering and science, so they became good at architecture as a result. "_All of this developed out of irrigation. _"

[_Your Majesty, I could be amazed at how much more glorious Birabutean civilization is, when compared to ours! The Birabuteans, judging by their values, might as well have been the greatest, and happiest, people in all of_ _Sarasaland!_]


	5. Chapter 2a: The Gaos

Here, the race who are rulers of all of Birabuto, the Gaos, shall be explained here.

The Gaos (**Pionpí**: Ga-ó "_roaring_", **Birabúwtat**: Birabúwatat, "_people of the [Home/Heart-]Nation_") are a race of beings who resemble lions, but with yellow and red (or black or blue) manes, and the blessing/problem of breathing fire. Unlike ordinary lions, they are more intelligent, and are more stronger. They either walk on all fours, or they use their hind legs. But like female lions, Gaos who are female have no manes.

Gaos live for, on average, 70-80 years. The longest lifespan any Gao has ever lived through is around 120 years.

Gaos sometimes wear clothing; not all Gaos are naked, you know. For the available clothing, they range from white tunics to black and blue/or/red robes. The higher a Gao's rank in society, the more colorful his clothes can be afforded for him or her. Some Gaos wear turbans and veils (especially males), while others wear veils (mostly females). Veils may differ between males and females. The turbans and veils are especially found among plains-, desert-, or mountain-dwellers.

As for the King ("_Pharaoh_", or "_pa-ruw-'áh_"), he wears white robes or tunics with gold, and a mane-like crown of red and black for his shaven head.

To be respectable as a male Gao in Birabuto, one needs to keep his mane unshorn, except on rituals (such as the monthly purity ritual held at the 15th night of each month). Those who do mess their manes in Birabuto get scorned, not executed (_unlike in ancient Chai_). Yet, this same poor Gaos are still considered as Gaos, and **_never_** as "freaks", nor as rebels against their gods.

Like the people of Chai, the Birabuteans are also hardworking and literate. However, this is not as deep as in Chai; most Birabuteans only know a tiny percentage of all the classics and "valuable" literature in all of Birabuto, owing to the sheer amount of literature in the whole land: it is 10,000 times bigger than all of Chai's records combined! Also, the people there tend to be more relaxed and positive and happy, unlike the gloomy, aggressive, and cold culture of warfare in Chai.

But their weaknesses, though less serious, can be a seed for their downfall: pride, aloofness, foolhardiness, disregard for culture, and possibly (in some cases) naïveté, along with the worst of weaknesses: anger, and a literally fiery temper! These seem to be the opposite of those in Chai.

The Birabuteans are still ruled by the King, or _Pharaoh_, who sits on the _Throne of the Sun_. There is also a bureaucracy in Birabuto, but it has became much more simplified since the _Conquest_. Over the people and their lives, the _Prime Minister_ (since ancient times a _Vizier_, unlike in modern Chai) governs the people and their departments, who are held by lesser officers. In some chaotic periods in ancient Birabutean history, especially in famines or economic crises, the whole land and citizenry was sold over to the King for his direct protection over all (_except the Priests, who must keep their land, and who have their own army/defense-forces_)! The King, as the divine representative of _the Gods of Birabuto_, is to act as a righteous example by ancient religious law; that is why there were more Birabutean _Kings_ who were much more better than their foolish, monkeying _Chaian_ counterparts. More righteous and good kings in Birabuto than there are in Chai!

I have asked permission from the current Birabutean King and his Holy Priesthood to record their formerly-secretive religion: my request was granted. So here is the religion of Birabuto, simplified for casual readers: "_Ruler of all is the Sun God, King of Harvests, Protector of the Land_. _The Great Sun God's child, the Pharaoh, rules his nation with his Prime Minister. To truly follow the Sun God, his child, and his heavenly pantheon of thousands of gods, one is to live righteously before their sight, and not even dare devote one's self to sin. For horrible consequences, however distant, follow those who have brought its_ _curses. Nevertheless, happiness and laughter, when done under the Heavenly path of righteousness and well-being, is also the will of the gods to everyone, Birabutean and outsider alike._"

The language of Birabuto is called, in its native terms, "**Birabúwtat**". It itself means, "the language of the Homeland": bi-land, rabú-home, tat-language/speech, not to be confused with the demonym of the natives themselves (**Birabúwatat**; atat, patat-people, race, nation.) ! This language is multisyllabric, but is mainly written with special glyphs for words (even to this day for new modern inventions!) and several for the main consonant sounds, vowel equivalents in "glides" (_such as "y" and "w"_), and consonant clusters (_like "khs", "sn", and "skh"_), and numbers (punctuation is mostly a recent addition).

As a "normal" civilization, the culture of Birabuto is a "well-developed", "natural" one, unless one considers post-_Conquest_ modernizations an enormous interruption. It started as a farming culture, but due to its richness and the power of its ancient rulers over their rivals, it has evolved into an urban culture, with many feudal elements (that no longer exist today). Much of their interests revolve around art since the days of yore, but mathematics and engineering developed from a desire to irrigate much of the former desert (which has became extremely successful up to today). **For example,** Birabuteans love: painting, learning mathematics and astronomy, music and dancing, building lovely structures (not just temples and palaces and tombs, but also halls of various sorts), horse-and/or-camel-racing (and lotteries over that sort), playing with dice or board games or toys, and hunting and fishing. They also love birds, too.

**HERE I SHALL LIST THE HISTORY OF BIRABUTO**

From the few archaeological sites scattered in northern Birabuto, the prehistoric Gaos were originally hunter-gatherers who live in tents and huts. But somewhere on EJ -300 _(before the supposed time of Creation in Chaian legend)_ , the first settled villages were founded. Over the next century, these ancient proto-Gaos/_Birabúwatat_ developed writing, formal organisation, and farming.

There, on around EJ -269 (_comparing Birabutean lunisolar calendar dates with those of the EJ system_), the first _King of Birabuto_, Snerkhmaro, the Ever-Valiant, took up leadership of his tribe. In the face of aggressors and rising upstarts, he took over the other villages, until only three remained.

So, on EJ -164, for three secretive years, the Battle of the Three Rebel Villages began. Despite heavy losses, King Snerkhmaro's village (now a town), Niwotah-Sassanah, was victorious, burning the wooden remains of the last village in a heap. All that remained of that village was later used as a garbage dump. *i

While the rest of Sarasaland mired in dark barbarian savagery, _Mokhmunah_ (Birabuto's oldest name) built itself, steadily and slowly. But before King Snerkhmaro died, the people wanted to build the grandest temple of rock carvings they had ever done to honor him. Despite its simplicity, and supposed "_primitive elements_", this relic is now the most sacred site in all of Birabuto, where the oldest religious rituals are somewhat still in practice today. Except for several "_usurpers_" and "_invaders_", the _Temple of Snerkhmaro-Mokhmunatu_ is otherwise untouched by enemy hands. *ii

In the first century _EJ_, the rulers' obsession with irrigating the scrubland and desert-land around them, and the people's enigmatic curiosity, planted the seeds for their love of mathematics and science, and a hunger for more knowledge. Not only had they succeeded in greening the old dry plains around them, but they had attracted the primitive proto-Gaos around them: wanderers, fugitives, and even _raiders_. Thus the _Age of Snerkhmaro_ gave way to the 60-year _Age of Raiders_ (EJ 63-123), when the persistent _Niwotah-Sassanahhatat_ braved these storms of arrows, javelins, and sling-stones.

Meanwhile, on the 31st year, King Lekhmeno the Courageous launched tens of invasions at the camps, plundering tribal treasures, and capturing thousands of barbarian slaves to be put to work in his canals and barracks. After 5 years, many slave revolts flared through the city and its colonies, and the King Lekhmeno was murdered by a lieutenant, Khomesh. Khomesh then ruled like a chieftain; unintelligent warriors became into his officials, and he had many wives who bare him 13 sons and 15 daughters. After he died at EJ 111, after years of subjugating rival chieftains and executing them for _his_ own pleasure, his sons fought for the throne. A certain Vizier Themorowu abducted the princesses in the chaos, and took them to the village of Wadiwadar, where they are all forced to marry his nephews. Fearing the consequences of such a dastardly plot, both abducted and captors escaped at the wedding night to the western coasts, where they and their followers founded a thorn to the future leaders' side, with _Snerkhmaro-Paremuwah_ ("Snerkhmaro-Have-Mercy") as its fortified capital.

At EJ 124, after the _Escape of the Princesses_ which lasted for 8 days, Vizier Themorowu crowned the blood-stained victor, Crown Prince Mekhmanaros I, in the _Temple of the First King_. But his uncle, Hamharabarad the Accursed, murdered the treacherous Vizier, and exiled his son to the _Needles of the Heavens_ (the northern mountain chain and border of Birabuto) to wander there as a renegade. But after a few months, Hamharabad was struck by lightning while watching a ball game in the _Square of Enjoyment_, as his royal canopy burned and collapsed on his officials, his guards, and his wife. Someone escaped to Mekhmanaros to report to him the disasterous end of his Master, and so he and the messenger rode on the latter's rusted chariot into the shining white walls of the capital. He was secretly brought into the city by certain officials, who needed his leadership, as the _Princes of the West_ (the Princesses' generals) will be coming to besiege it!

On EJ 125, after the autumnal _New Year _has passed, the _First Great Siege of the Capital_ began. Despite their heavy losses, the _Mokhmunahhatat_ prevailed over the _Wadiwadar-hatat_, and chased them all over to the mountainous edges and seas. But the very company that headed west for the _Eleventh Prince of the West_ "never returned"; they were presumably routed.

Afterwards, while the Kings of the West sulked away and explored the rest of ancient Sarasaland, the rulership of Mekhmanos I prospered and armed itself. Through the following centuries, battles raged between the _Mekhmanohatat_ and the _Wadiwar-hatat_ of the western shores, and famines arrived every hundreds of years or so; some blazed the land for months, some for decades, pushing both sides into exploring _proto-Muda_ and the ancestral tribes of what will become _Shun-Kwok_. As for the western side, where the _Vizier's Offspring _stumbled into, I would need to go into Muda to find out. But reconstructing royal accounts of the eastern expeditions, and some oral legends of the arid lands south of _Chai_, it may have been that these leaders may have civilised the locals there, teaching them important skills to put aside their nomadic past. They may have became into the strange gods of the _Southern Chaian Pantheons_, and their language the _Southern Chaians_' influence; and they may have been among the last enemies of the_ King Shun-Chia_, "_The Southern Barbarians whose armour glittereth with gold_".

Reconnecting the _Royal Histories_ with _The Histories of the Exiles_, it is revealed that _Omarabad_ of _Wadiwar-hatat_ (the Crown Princess _Khenseret_'s grown-up son) had decided to unify his city-state with his fourteen brethren, and had children of mixed local and royal heritage. These same children became a tactical part of the armies of the _Exiles_, leading them, and bearing the greatest of risks, that of facing the enemy's deadly vanguard. The result of that political union is something of a confederacy, lead by the first ever elective monarchy in all of Sarasaland, if not _the World_.

This same situation lasted for 805 years.

Meanwhile, King _Rekhminoresh_ the Mighty (EJ 298-379, born on EJ 273) found out that his tributaries were defeated by a "_mysterious army of hopping Purple-Skins_", and sent his dynasty's last expedition into _Shunoquwoqo__-Tóh_. Despite crushing many of _Shun-Kwok_'s men, they reassembled, every time they were "slain", to slay the invaders and conquerors, burning their remains in a mighty heap, their flutes hollering through the ancient air, their drums roaring into the valleys. Rekhminoresh then fussily sent out a spy into the enemy's land. _This may have been how __Shun-Dao-Tien/Shundawtiyeno, a defeated Southern general adopted into the Royal Court of Shun, was driven to assassinate his conqueror, and the spy returned unscathed with a joyful report to the_ King.

But on the year EJ 469, a black column of smoke started to fly into _Northeast Birabuto_. Screams, or echos of screams, were heard from the mountain passes. This dreaded sight of the _Smoke of the Screams_ occurs every nine months, through the four seasons. The guards stationed on the mountain passes were about to ride by chariot, horseback, and camel to report and ask for permission to enter _Shunqo-Tóh_, when a _Purple-Skin_ frantically hopped into the _Furthest Tower_. He spoke in what appeared to sound like broken _Birabúwtat_, bearing grave news: " ... _an evil race of kings has taken over my land, forcing my family and friends to serve their immense army, massacring all who resist. And there were many who dared fight back! Alas, my relatives are here. Please let them in!_"

"How great is the army of the now-corrupted _Shunqo-Tóh-Hatat?_"

"Thousands upon thousands upon thousands. May I ask for your _King_ to send spies to prove my words, for **my** king kills any who come into his land; war, or peace. They are also armed with _steel_ weapons, and terrifying engines of wood and fire! But sneak carefully, and do not let them know!"

The _Purple-Skin_, or _Shunqo-totat_, and his relatives were allowed through the pass, speaking in the _Shunqo-tat_ laced with royal elements of their old friends. They were later stationed near the mountain-pass forts, as a second line of defence, should the _Evil Kings of the East_ charge into Birabuto. He was right; the spies came back with reports of "_ ... on the very site of our old Temple of the New Lands, they built a bonfire, where the Newcomer's family and people were burned to death by the hundreds._", " ... _armies of innumerable horror; of both number and weaponry without count, and so is their cruelty._", "_ ... that country is now called in their speech, 'Zéba-quwoqo__'_".

In response, King _Makhmarna-kheywah_ mobilized the eastern frontier against the _Ev__il Kings_, who troops hopped into the mountains, and built forts bearing dreadful black-and-red flags with strange-looking scribbles of evil-looking birds.

Almost a watchful thousand years passed, after the two Kingdoms of _Mokhmunah_ became into two powerful, mighty confronting powers, the threat finally came. The legendary _Evil Kings_ (this time bearing purple standards with _white_ insignia) invaded the mountain passes on the year EJ 1402. The mountain forts, despite their advanced technology and ever-ready trains of messengers, were ever ambushed and crushed by rains of boulders, the survivors slain by the fearsome invaders. Then they encountered the _Purple-Skin_ tributaries, all of them forming a wall of metal. But it was a cloudy day, without which the invaders would have burnt to death earlier by the shields' reflections, allowing the _Tjay_ to annihilate the _Purple-Skins_, mutilating them into fragments, and burning their struggling, screaming remains. _Yet a lucky few escaped, along with all the non-combatants, before this horrific battle_.

Without at least any of these few, the Birabuteans may have assumed that these _Tjay_ were unstoppable, evil gods who were sent to ravage the land. But what were they even doing, letting themselves get oppressed by those revengeful conquerors, and forgetting that they can only be killed by fire, poison, or heavy objects, or falling from a high distance? And the _Gaos _can breathe fire, so why let their religious customs stop them? And why were these _Purple-Skins_ keeping this valuable secret, supposedly due to some insane prophecy *iii ? Why would not they help their _Kings_ turn the tide of war? Why?

So the villainous _Tjay_ conducted the _Second Great Siege of Mokhmunah_, and succeeded. After that, they slayed any who show any sign of resistance, from raising a paw into a fist, to even holding a sickle. They even massacred the _Mekhmanarotu_ Royal Family, leaving none alive, and staining the walls and throne red and crimson with their blood. Then, they battled their way into the _Temple of Snerkhmaro_, slaughtering thousands of tearful citizens who blocked the conquerors, their last cries being wails to the _Sun God and his Child, Snerkhmaro_, and burnt it with all the bodies of the slain, releasing another horrific _Smoke of the Dead Screams_. But when they tried to desecrate the _Temple_ by demolishing it, all who did so were suddenly infected with a sharp inflammation: the ashes of the dead were mixed with the ashes of the sick, and with the gold and metals mixed in, created a deadly substance that infected any _Tjay_ or _Purple-Skin_ who approaches the _Temple_. This was the start of the 89-Year _Cleansing of the Temple of Snerkhmaro_.

For one hundred and sixty-two years, the tyrannous _Tjay_ oppressed the land, forcing it to fight mysterious newcomers to the "_Lands of the Slain_" (_Muda_). But a _Purple-Skin_, Khanqa-Tji-Yun, finally ended his tribe's mad prophecy earlier by revealing the _Secret of the Tjay_: they can be killed ultimately with fire. He then grabbed a torch in front of his bewildered _Western_ friends, and set himself ablaze to their horrified eyes. Among the first of the late _Era of Oppression_ of the _Tjay_ to be killed are some sentinels walking down the dark streets of the eastern fortress-city of _Mekhmono_, where soldiers or civilians (_conflicting accounts!_) shot them with a few burning arrows. The _Taboo of_ _Fire-Breathing_ *ivis now allowed to be broken; it was especially useful in taking back the _Land of Mokhmunah_ from the invaders.

And for four years, ending in the year 1568, the _Princes (Now Kings) of the West _reclaimed the land from their conquerors and oppressors. The last of the _Purple-Skins_ used their resources to build weaponry, and spied at the _Tjay_, freeing thousands and thousands of prisoners in some of their infiltrations. Then, the _Mokhmunahhatat_ fought their way out, aided by their _Western deliverers_, burning the enemy's garrisons and camps with fire, and trapping the invaders there.

The _Kings of the West _then placed their elective monarchy into the capital, and consecrated their rule. They then renamed it, and the whole kingdom, "_Birabú_", and ruled it peacefully and carefully until the year 2004.

On the year 2004, the _Silver-Pots_ marched and flew from the northwest. They were almost repelled.

But on the year 2048, the corrupt _King Tekhmonqar_ became ruler *v ; but he was not the first _evil_ king, nor was he the only _Birabutean__/Mokhmunahhatat_ oppressor.

Taking advantage of his enemy's weakness, he launched several invasions into _Tjay_, but all of them failed.

In his rage, he died on a cold winter night on 2101.

Yet, this was the _start_ of the _Silver_ _Age_, as dubbed by foreigners, or the _Age of the Gathering Clouds_. Despite the Birabuteans' traditional happiness and positivity, they remained watchful.

Occasionally, some _Tjay_ or _Muyuda_ traveller or renegade would wander into _Birabuto_, and pledge allegiance to the _Qarqasho_ Line. Not only would they come, bearing information and culture from their now-interesting-but-dangerous lands. They might share the technology that can help defend Birabuto from the rising terrors that await in _Muyuda_!

After repelling _Muyuda_ invasion by invasion, shooting their metallic ships from the skies, on 4479 and 4483, the _Tjay_ are coming to invade again!

Wars after wars had still not beaten this nation down; it had strengthened it so much, that on the autumn of 5550, news came out from _Tjay_ that the _Evil Kings _had surrendered! The whole land was about to rejoice so much, the last free _King of Birabuto_, _Irsekhon of the House of Tjatjam_, surrendered leadership to the _Pale Skins_, just in gratitude for their conquest of _Tjay_.

What a foolish decision he had made! And yet, witnessing the horrendous technology of the _Pale Skins_, and lured by the technology and knowledge they had brought with them, there was little resistance, especially in the "_Proud Old West_".

Birabuto's free history has ended here. But now, Birabuto, for all of its grandeur, may be a grown shadow of its old self ...

The current ruler of Birabuto is the _sly_ King Totomesu.

[_My comments: I would like to visit the curious people of the Purple-Skins; I wonder if they are still here today ... ?__ And, I shall apologize to the people of Birabuto for our evil inflicted upon you for the past five millenia. Please forgive us, or burn our lands with fire._] 

* * *

_*i It is now the very site of the Museum of Prehistoric Birabutean History._

_*ii albeit reconstructed, and re-consecrated._

_*iii Note what Piang mentioned in the second previous chapter: Pionpis are very__ superstitious._

_*iv It may be linked with a very old religious belief in Birabuto: fire-breathing is the worst form of insult directed at an enemy. Using it is akin to cursing at someone with obscene words in foreign countries__._

_*v He was the one who abolished the elective monarchy system of Birabuto!_


End file.
